10 Open Source Twitter Clients - And Counting...
Twitter has become one of the biggest buzz words around these days and for good reason. Long has the time passed where Twitter was seen as a time waster and are now used on a daily basis by some of the most influential people in various verticals to connect, exchange and talk to friends, clients and co-workers.
There are some really awesome free Twitter clients available but here at OpenSource Release Feed we went on the hunt for not just free but, open source Twitter clients. It was not the easiest of tasks but, we believe we ended up with a really diverse collection of 10 of the most notable open source Twitter clients out there. So whether something being free is just not enough for you or, whether you want access to the source to learn and/or extend, below find 10 open source Twitter clients we believe is worth taking the time to give it a whirl.
Spaz
Spaz calls itself you special Twitter friend. Spaz is written in pure JavaScript, CSS and XHTML utilizing the powerful jQuery library. It is downloaded as an Adobe AIR desktop application, is completely free, cross platform and open source.
Some of the features you will find in Spaz includes build in search, support for short URL creation via multiple services such as bit.ly, snurl.com and more. Markdown syntac support, multiple themes including support for user created themes, for which there is a free theme development kit. It also includes directory listings of the users you are following and are following you as well as debugging and development tools.
Gwibber
Gwibber is developed with Python and GTK specifically for GNOME systems. What it loses in not being cross platform it makes up with regards to support for various service. Gwibber is more then just a client for Twitter it is a complete microblogging platform with support for Twitter, Jaiku, Identi.ca, Facebook, Flickr, Digg, and RSS.
It uses the Webkit rendering engine under the hood and as such can get pretty fancy. As Spaz does, it also allows you to customize it to fit your mood. It includes a very useful feature where messages from people that replied to you are outlined in red and new messages are outlined in light blue.
Mitter
Mitter aims to be a simple, lightweight, cross platform Twitter client and does exactly that. Mitter runs on Linux, Windows and MacOS X using PyGTK (http://www.pygtk.org/) . Mitter allows you to keep your Twitter status up to date as well as see the messages from your friends. As the other clients it support customization of the interface.
Witty
This one is a Windows only open source client based on the Windows Presentation Foundation. Event though this is not a cross platform client it does have some really nice features. Some of the basics are: View recent Twitter statuses from the people you follow (auto-refreshing), view recent replies to you, view a specific user's timeline, update your twitter status, view and respond to Direct Messages and links will open in the user's default browser.
Some of the more detailed feature are the use of asynchronous calls to prevent th UI from locking up. As with the other clients Witty also allows customization of styles and resources. Built in spell checking with new messages highlighted using the popular yellow fade technique. Support for skins as well as a bunch of keyboard shortcuts to make Tweeting even earlier.
Twoot
As I have already covered a Linux only based client as well as a Windows only client, this time I introduce you to a Mac OSX only client called Twoot. Twoot is a lightweight client based on jQuery and Fluid.
Twoot is a customizable minimal twitter client for WebKit-based SSBs. The idea is to provide a native-looking application that is easy to customize to your specific needs. Although it has not been tested, because Twoot runs on top of the Webkit rendering engine it should work just as well as a web based client inside Safari or on the iPhone.
gTwitter
gTwitter is a GTK+ Linux based Twitter client inspired by the Mac's Twitterrific client and is written using Mono/C# and some GNOME dependencies. gTwitter is under heavy development with some of the current features being:
Read your friends public timeline, read public timeline, post to Twitter, set refresh interval, images from friends timeline are being cached and a notification area icon.
Pwytter
Pwytter is a cross-platform Twitter client written in, you guessed it, Python/tkInter. Pwytter has some really awesome features already and is definitely worth trying out.
Some of the feature highlights are the ability to switch between timelines: User, Friends, Public, Replies, Direct messages, "Composite". Full Unicode support as well as available in 14 languages. Easy reply and direct messages. Image and request caching for a more responsive UI as well as automatic update detection.
JibJib - Java Based Mobile Twitter
JibJib is an open source mobile Twitter client based on Java Mobile Edition. Comes in at a very small 30-40kb, easy @reply button, ensures small amounts of bandwidth usage by combining JSON with birdnest. Ensures fast response times by the use of multi threading.
NatsuLiphone - Twitter On Your iPhone
NatsuLiphone is a simple Twitter client for iPhone/iPod touch. This is a feature packed Twitter client for you iPhone/iPod Touch including some unique features. All the obvious ones are there, like following friends time lines, posting a message, saving a favorite etc.
Then there are other really nice features like simply tapping on the @reply to send a reply, replies are emphasized and you also have the needed tools to manage unread tweets. Then there is the built in browser, or optionally use Safari, to quickly access web links as well as the possibility to view tweets as a conversation using the pair time line. Looks like a really great option for when you need to tweet on the move.
MoTwitAir
Does none of the previous apps do what you need? As all of these are open source you can freely contribute to any of the projects but, if you are looking to pick up the torch, you may want to have a look at MoTwitAir, as the name suggest it uses the Adobe Air runtime and is built with Flex.
However as of 1 March 2008 the original creator of the project stopped all development on the project. Nonetheless the code is still open source and available for download. The current version support the following: Auto Refresh of Timeline, Viewing of your Timeline with Friends, Viewing of Twitter public timeline Links for reply and direct messaging as well as Automatic linking of @username and web links.
Have a look at the source code and let us know if you decide to restart development of this Twitter client.
TwitterFox - Tweet From Firefox
TwitterFox is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends' tweets on Twitter. This extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets. Also it has a small text input field to update your tweets.
Twitterfox boasts some great features and with a recent update added even more for example: Added a context menu to each tweets which has: Copy, Re-tweet, Open this tweet in new tab, Delete tweet
